New recycling tech recovers nearly pure nickel and cobalt from old EV batteries

Researchers at South Korea’s Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) have developed an innovative, eco-friendly recycling process that recovers over 95% of nickel and cobalt from used electric vehicle (EV) batteries with near-perfect purity. Unlike conventional wet recycling methods that rely on strong acids and multi-step chemical treatments, this new technique uses a selective electrochemical separation facilitated by a deep eutectic solvent (DES) called ethaline, composed of ethylene glycol and chloride ions. This solvent selectively binds nickel and cobalt ions, enabling their efficient separation through distinct reduction voltages, thereby overcoming the typical trade-off between purity and recovery rate. The process achieves a nickel-cobalt separation factor greater than 3,000 and recovers more than 97% nickel from synthetic mixtures, with real battery leachates yielding 99.1% nickel purity and 98.8% cobalt purity at recovery rates above 95%. Additionally, the method’s electrodeposition step naturally generates chlorine within